The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-18
THEGRAYESOF GREAT POETS
Visiting the Burial Places of Gray and
the Myriad-Minded Shakespeare.
Stoke Pogis and Stratford- Upon-Avon-Ox-
ford and Its Colleges-Her Gracious Maj
es;y's Private Grounds at Windsor

LONDON, Aug, 1SSa-Slough is the uu-
poetic name OF a station on the Great
Western railway. less than twenty miles
from London, which is reached from the
Paddington station in little more than half
hours ride Sometime. possibly there may
have been slough in the locality, but at pres
emit there is nothing to Justify the retention of
the name and a movement is making to trans
fer to the station title that will indicate what
use it is to the traveller and tourist. The value
of Slough consists in the fact that it is the near
est point whence Stoke Pogis may be reached,
IS, also, that it is the junction from which you
take the road for Windsor. Stoke Pogis was one
OF the few places down in my note book to be
seen at all hazards, but for the life of me where
it was or how 1t was to be reached could not be
found out by consulting any and all of the rail-
way guides Finally learned that Slough was
the place TO which 1 wanted to go, and go I
did. At the station the ''cabbies" were on hand.
and arrangement readily effected for
driving to Stoke Poeis Church, through Burn
ham Beeches to Elton, and thence to Windsor,
the round to be taken pleasantly and comfort
ably in one day. and a most delightful day it
proved. There is nothing equal to these beauti-
full. smooth. hawthorn hedged English roads,
winding in and through green fields, brown
fields, sweet-smeling meadows, by meandering
river and past the 'lowly- matched cottages"
and more pretentious. stone houses, with their
pretty gardens, that everywhere SO thickly
dot the landscape. Stoke Pogis Church
is about two miles and half
from the railway. The drive prepares
you for the sIumbrous church yard, in which
the poets grave is situated, and where the yew
trees shade yet rests the grassy heaps where
the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. Stoke
Park is one of the typical rural homes of Eng
land. The hall is fine old mansion surrounded
by broad acres over which cattle, and sheep and
deer browse and wander at will It is tenantiess
now, but has been purchased by MIR. Bryant of
the great match making firm of Bryant e May,
so that this Locofoco becomes, by the purchase,
the owner of tho church and it's yard, and of
the dust of him who gave to the place its claim
upon the affectionate regard of all reading
people. don't know Mr. Bryant: but soms-
how it is hard to reconcile birthstone matches
with poetry, and 1 felt not little resentful at
this encroachment of Philistinism. The church
stands upon plateau slightly raised from the
road, and within sight of the house. Of course
it is stone, with slender steeple that can be
for some distance; the lower half of the en-
tire edifce is heavily clad in ivy, and It creeps
up the tower. mantling it in beauty. But a
lew 1901 IrOiu tHo slUo porch Sblll SLa0Q THO
rugged elm and the two great yew trees. Even
in midday. the place seems to be "a glimmering
landscape, in the soft tender haze that rests
above and upon it, and ''all the air a solemn
stiffness holds" A few old sturdy
workmen were engaged in enlarging the
borders of the church-yard. They might
readily pass for the very whose harrow oft
the stubborn glebe had broke. One of them
left his work and m m lint fba
grave of the poet. which stands at the end of the
church, not more than ten feet from the wall
A marble tablet tells that the poet Gray is
buried in the adjoining grave, along with his
mother and his aunt. The monument is q mar
BILE sarcophagus, raised upon heavy pedestal
situated distance from the church in a
meadow that abuts the road. On the four sides
OF the pedestal engraved quotations from
his poems, three of them from the elegy and
one from "a Distant View of Etor." The
verses from the elegy are those beginning,
Hard by yon wood now smiling as in scorn,"
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew trees
shade" and 1.-THE boast of heraldry, the pomp
of power" This latter verse that which
tradition says Wolf repeated to himself as he
went down the St Lawrence, saying that he
would rather be the author of the elegy than to
take Quebec. Stoke Pogis was the first place
1 had visited whore the man who gave it its i'm
mortality was buried on the spot associated with
his name and memory. and I could not but
think how much better it was this way than
otherwise Shakespeare would not be at home
elsewhere than in Stratford Beautiful and
peaceful Stoke Pogis is, almost all of it's
charm would be gone were 1t not that you can
sit beside Grays grave as your eyes take in the
quiet landscape and you hear the drowsy tink-
lings that ull the distant folds.
"Burnham Beeches" are as much curiosity
in their way the Big Trees of California. It
is immense forest of great, gnarled trees that
rival in age the cedars of Lebanon, and under.
whose spreading shade for generations upon
generations, children have played, and young
men and maidens walked and talked, and
dreamed themselves into the eysian fields
Here they were. they had been for centuries,
possibly; picncking, swinging, rollicking, shout
ing. laughing. sitting together on the turf ex-
changing sweet condolences. strolling through
the thick shadow. happy in the DID, old fashion.
1t was picturesque scene among the "Beeches,"
made even more so by two three groups of
gypsies sitting about their camp-fres These
gypsies are an almost omnipresent feature of
rural England. There are gypses every where
travelling in gaily-painted vans, camping out
under the friendly shelter OF the forest. with
their swart faces and their strange Romany dia-
lect These hoary avenues were vocal with the
muse of Grey, was all the delightful way M
til we sighted the buildings of Elton, stretching
down to the Thames, and edging themselves
almost into the precincts of Windsor Castle.
In the room yonder, whose window overlooks the
meadow that fronts the river the poet looked
out upon the multitude of people who, for a
thoughtless half day at least, had left
all the cares and perplexities of their
lives behind them, and were enjoy.
ing themselves only crowd OF
the English lower classes and do. and had
written that where ignorance is bliss, tits
folly to be wise"
The company Of Gray was much pleasanter
than that of royalty; but from Elton is but step
to the gray and venerable towers and battle
ments of Windsor Castle the English home of